I'm a Candy Winner!

Yip, I won some lovely candy and not just from anyone but from the Cardmaker of the Year 2011!  I noticed Sharon Callis had a giveaway for some Oriental stamps and papers and I thought I would give it a go!  Sharon has wonderful card ideas and makes a mean Cricut card!  Here is a picture of my winnings and the lovely handmade card from Sharon:-

The stamps are great and I had been looking for a set with lanterns for a while.  The papers are actually foiled vellums and every design is just stunning.  Can't wait to use them on a card.  Here is a close-up of Sharon's lovely card:-

Isn't he cute?  Such a lovely thought.

So, if you are thinking to enter any candy giveaways, just give it a go!

Happy crafting,

Rachel x

Black and Gold Birthday

Another day, another card!  This one was made in my lunch hour!  Been so busy recently and the time has just flown so when my Mam's birthday rolled around this Tues I was a little behind in my cardmaking.  I'm planning something rather spectacular for Mother's Day though so keep your eyes peeled! 

I stated with an A4 sheet of card and scored it in half with my Ultimate Pro.  I'm not sure how I ever made a card without it.  Then I covered with the gold and black paper which I printed from Debbi Moore's Glamour and Glitz New York CD-ROM.  I cut out the decopage image a couple of weeks ago and was surprised at how easy the layers were to cut out.  I used mounting foam to give the layers some dimension. 

The sentiment tag was made with the Spellbinders Ribbon Banners covered in Perfect Medium ink and then dusted with Metal Magic.  I did two layers and then added a gold peel off.  It hasn't shown up very well in the photo and now that the card is sitting on the mantelpiece at my parents house, taking a close-up won't be so easy!  When I get one, I'll add it to this post though.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Challenge #110 - Leap into action...

We loved looking through your entries for the Green, White and Blue challenge last week over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.  Who knew there were so many shades of green and blue!  Thanks to everyone who entered.  Pop over to the blog to see if you were our lucky winner.

As most of you will know, we have an extra day this month, making 2012 a Leap Year!  The theme this week is based around this and we want you to...

Leap into Action

You can choose anything that leaps or jumps and this theme is perfect to let your creative juices flow and see what you end up creating.  The lucky winner will receive crafty goodness from Joanna Sheen. 

I have chosen a frog and here is my card:-

Now, I know what you're thinking - "Last week was green, white and blue!"  Well, I didn't set out to make a card with these colours but this is how it turned out and I kinda like it!  I cut a piece of the Anna Stemplewska black and white dotty paper and attached with double sided sticky tape. 

To get the water effect, I crumpled up a piece of copy paper and then inked up my speedball brayer in Big and Juicy Waterfall and ran it over the crumpled paper.  Then I bayered over the bottom part of the card.  I waited a little while to let the ink dry and then put the top half of the card inside the Happy Birthday embossing folder and passed it through my Cuttlebug.  I attached this with foam tape.  The frog was cut with my Cricut Expression 2 from the Paisley cartridge and added using foam pads.  I coloured the American seam binding with my Cyan Promarker. 

Hope this challenge does send you all hopping mad!

Happy crafting,

Rachel x

Challenge #109 - Green, White and Blue

What a great response to our 'Try Something New' challenge last week at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.  So many ideas and a wide range of techniques and projects to tickle our fancy!  Check out the blog to see the lucky winner.


Challenge 109 is well and truly here and it's a colour combo challenge.  We've chosen...

Green, White and Blue

A great, fresh colour combo and open to so many possibilities.  This is my version:-

This was make it and see card!  I started with the digi image, courtesy of Bugaboo Stamps who are our great sponsor this week.  I cut the image out using Spellbinders Grand Labels Twenty Three and then inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Bundled Sage.  The green heart background cardstock started out as black and white but I rubbed the surface with the same Bundled Sage Distress Ink and changed it to green.  I dabbed all over with a piece of kitchen roll to give a nice textured look.  I was really pleased with the vibrancy of the colour.  To make the blue background paper, I took a photo of the green cardstock and used the My Craft Studio software to find a blue tone that complimented.  I set the canvas to this colour and then simply printed onto Super Smooth paper.  The lace was bought from my local craft shop, Nimble Fingers. 

I made the rosette by taking a piece of white cardstock and pressing it into the Bundled Sage Distress Ink and then scored using two of the score lines on the Ultimate Pro (tri-fold A4 and half fold A5).  I glued with Pinflair Glue Gel and used my Cuttlebug to hold in place.  I punched the heart from the same blue background paper and attached with more glue gel.  Every layer is attached using mounting foam.  I really love using the foam as it gives dimension and is really easy to use.  Finally I added some MCS glitter to the butterfly trails with a Quickie Glue Pen.

I would like to enter this card into Sketch Saturday's Challenge #195. 

I hope you can join us for this colour combo challenge and look forward to seeing all of your entries.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Say it with an Umbrella!

I saw loads of great digi images on the D'Arcy's Diaries blog and they brought so many ideas to mind that I couldn't resist snapping them up.  This card is made using the 'Under my Umbrella' image.  It was really easy to colour as the shading was a great help.  I'm not too confident with my colouring yet but practice makes perfect as they say. 

I mat and layered some silver mirri-paper and then made my own background paper using stamps from the Stampin' Up! Artistic Etchings set.  I originally planned to include an Eiffel Tower but this will just have to be saved for another card.  The black flourish borders were cut from the Spellbinders Parisian Accents and I attached them with Cosmic Shimmer glue. 

I coloured the image with Promarkers in:-
Almond and Blush (skin)
Cinnamon and Henna (hair)
Black, Cool Grey 4, Rose Pink, Blossom and Cerise (dress and boots)
Rose Pink and Blossom (umbrella). 

I also coloured a length of American seam binding with the Rose Pink Promarker to match and tied the bow by hand.  The flowers were from a selection from 3Birds.  I used brads in the centre and then attached using super sticky tape.  I didn't want the back of the brad showing on the inside of the card.

The sentiment was cut out using Spellbinders Labels Four Small.  I inked the edges of the sentiment and image tags with the same ink used for the sentiment.  I used the Debbi Moore foam applicator block which came with the first edition of her stamping techniques magazine. 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Bingo (Brads, Flowers and Bow)
Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog - Die-Cuts

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

DT Call over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges

Unfortunately, the lovely Sharon has had to resign from our DT at Fab'n'Funky Challenges. 

This means we are now recruiting 2 new members to the DT and welcome applications from everyone regardless of whether or not you have had previous DT experience.

The only main requirements are:

1. You have an active blog
2. Can create a new challenge to "go live" every Wednesday
3. Comment on participants entries - we have a number rota system
4. Host your own challenge week every 8 to 10 weeks

If you feel you can commit to all of the above, leave a comment on the Challenge blog post for the DT call, stating your blog address and an email address where we can contact you.

This DT post will stay open for the next 7 days.
Good luck everyone.

Happy crafting,
Rachel x

Trying Something New

Hope you've all had a good week.  We've had no snow here so far but I think it's threatening to arrive on Friday.  Just in time for the weekend!  What a loved up bunch you all are!  We had a great response to our Love is in the air challenge last week and don't forget top pop over to the Fab'n'Funky blog to see if you were one of our lucky winners. 

Now on to the next Challenge and it's a cracker! 

Try Something New

This could be a new technique or a completely new craft.  Looking forward to seeing what you're all trying this week.  I gave Metal Magic a go and this was the result:-

I'll be honest and say that Debbie Moore does make it look incredibly easy on the TV.  It wasn't too hard but I did have a couple of goes before I was happy.  Top tip - die cut before using Metal Magic!

This is actually my first commissioned card.  My Mam asked me to make a card for my cousin's 21 birthday at the beginning of next month.  I know that she likes turquoise so I thought I would make that the focus of the card.  It was a stroke of luck really that I had some brown and turquoise Metal Magic powder to match. 

I die cut the shape using Spellbinders Fancy Tags Three and then covered entirely with Perfect Medium clear ink.  Once I had poured the Metal Magic over the shape, I carefully tipped the excess back into the pot.  It is important not to tap as the powder will simply fall off. 

Using my heat tool, I heated from the back and watched as the magic happened!  I did this same process a second time and then quickly stamped the numbers before it hardened.  The background paper is from Debbi Moore's Glitter and Glitz Paris Glamour CD-ROM.  I love Debbi Moore's ranges - very glitzy and so elegant.  I've got lots of ideas for cards, I just need a few more days in the week!  I cut the paper into three using my Tonic guillotine and attached with foam tape.

Happy Crafting

Rachel x

Love is in the air...

Judging by the number of entries for last week's challenge, you all love your digi images!  Great entries all round too.  Check out Fab'n'Funky Challenges for the winners and our latest challenge.  Its a good un!

And without further ado lets get onto the next challenge:-

Love is in the air...

The DT had two great images from our sponsor Phindy's Place to play with and they were utterly adorable.  Here is my take on the theme:-

The card blank is actually made from Core'dinations.  I wasn't sure if this would be strong enough but it has stood up to four layers of foam tape!  Yes, I think I went a bit mad!  This is also my first attempt at blonde hair!  I think some extra practise is in order!  Maybe about half way there!  I used Promarkers in almond, blush and rose pink (skin), primrose, ivory and lemon (hair), cobalt blue and indigo blue (dress) and amethyst (top, leggings and shoes).  I also used a new technique for the heart and dug out my bottle of Glossy Accents.  I was really impressed with how easy this was to use.  The wings were sparkled with MCS glitter. 

I cut out the base for the image and the sentiment with Spellbinders Labels 20.  I added baker's twine tied in a knot near to the top edge of the card. The blue card is actually plain white card coloured with a Promarker in Indigo Blue to get the perfect colour match.  This is a really handy technique which I seem to be using more and more.  I embossed a piece of the same Core'dinations with a flowery Crafts Too embossing folder run through my Cuttlebug.  This was sanded to show the core colour.  The three pearls were from Create and Craft and came free when I bought a storage carousel.  Nothing better than something for free!

Happy crafting
Rachel x

Turquoise, Brown and Cream

Second card of the day!  I love Sundays like these!  I saw that the Penny Black and More Allsorts challenge blog were doing a bit of bingo playing this month and thought I would join in the fun.  This is their bingo grid below:-

I chose the top line and went with a cream, brown and turquoise card. 

I've had this embossing folder for a few months and kept thinking of ideas but never really got round to making them.  Well, finally I have today.  I think this folder is just beautiful.  I ran it through my Cuttlebug with Core'dinations cardstock and then lightly sanded it.  I love having texture on my cards.  The ribbon around the bottom was actually rescued from the packaging of a pair of pyjamas.  I stamped the greeting with turquoise ink and matt and layered in the same colours I used for the base card. 

Happy crafting
Rachel x

Tatty Ted Likes Butterflies Too

Tatty Ted is so cute and I couldn't resist making this card for my friend's birthday next week.  Fingers crossed she doesn't decide to look up my blog before I give it to her! 

I designed the card using the DoCrafts Digital Designer (DD) software and the inspiration for the sketch was something I found a while ago on the internet.  I can't remember where I found it though.  I made sure I shadowed each layer to make them jump off the page.  Once I had printed and cut out the design, I attached three turquoise gems to the top corner.  Simples!

In case there are any other crafters who have had difficulty in printing their creations straight from the DD software, I thought I would share with you how I fixed this problem.  I exported the whole file as an image and saved it in my pictures directory.  Then I used the Windows print function, making sure to uncheck the fit picture to frame box.  The gave me a border around the card and I was able to print knowing that the image would be perfect.  My printer isn't the best but does have an option to print borderless.  However, this didn't work for the DD software.  Hope this can help anyone with the same problem.

Happy crafting
Rachel x

Rules Were Made To Be Broken!

It's that time of week again and what a great response to our last challenge over at Fab'n'Funky Challenges.  I loved using the stunning photo for inspiration and by the looks of things, everyone else was inspired too. 

This week's challenge is sponsored by the Stamp Fairy and the design team were lucky enough to have two lovely images to use.  Our theme for the challenge is:-

use a digi image

and this was the perfect match with our sponsor.  I chose the Nelly in Love digi and I think I'm in love! 

Rules were made to be broken as they say and I think this card fits the bill!  I coloured the image before choosing my papers and I've placed the topper in the centre of the card, ignoring the rule of thirds.  I hope it works though.

The base is green pearlescent card from Create and Craft which I used to cover the card blank.  The flowery paper came free with Issue 84 of Quick Cards Made Easy.  I did a faux stitching effect using the fine liner pen from the Promarkers.  This is the first time I used this technique and I'll definitely be trying it again.  The gingham paper was from my stash and I think it was originally bought from eBay.  I coloured the image with Promarkers in Forest Green, Rose Pink (dress), Walnut, Cinnamon, Henna (hair), Satin, Blush and Dusky Pink (skin).  The little images inside the heart were coloured with the Promarkers in Forest Green and Rose Pink and just stamped as normal using an acrylic block. 

I cut the pink heart using one of the X-Cut dies and was really impressed with the embossing result.  The flourishes were cut from Spellbinders Flourish Accents and Twisted Metal Tags and Accents.  I coloured the back of the large flourish with the Forest Green Promarker to get a perfect colour match.  The lovely image was cut using Spellbinders Labels H.  I also used this for the sentiment stamp.  I had a major tidy up of my stamp collection at the weekend.  Found a few that had been forgotten in the back of the drawer.  My project this year is to make my crafty space more user-friendly as I'm constantly looking for things that I know I've bought but have no idea where I've hidden! 

Happy crafting,
Rachel x